Scarpetta is closing at the Thompson Hotel so that The Chase can move in

The bar at The Chase (Image: Renée Suen)

Last year’s biggest, splashiest restaurant duo, pescaterian penthouse The Chase and its casual sister restaurant The Chase Fish and Oyster, are already expanding—in characteristically grandiose fashion. Yesterday, The Chase Hospitality Group announced the upcoming launch of Colette Grand Café and Bakery, a new double-restaurant poised to open at the Thompson Hotel this spring. Colette will take over the space that currently houses Scarpetta, Scott Conant’s Italian power-restaurant, which dividedTorontofood critics from the get-go. (Contant’s condescendingly pally “open letter” to the city didn’t help.) Scarpetta closes on March 15.

The Chase group, meanwhile, has big plans for the new restaurant and bakery, which will operate out of a single, open-concept space. Colette will be an upscale, 100-seat dining room specializing in traditional French cuisine, while the bakery will serve pastries, sandwiches and other grab-and-go snacks. (Chase chef Michael Steh is overseeing both menus.) The restaurant is expected to open on May 1st.